5 Wildly Oblivious Horror Characters That Had It Coming From the Start, Ranked

Published Oct 7, 2026, 5:08 AM EDT Rotten Tomatoes | Letterboxd | Metacritic Carolyn Jenkins is a voracious consumer of film and television. She graduated from Long Island University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Producing where she learned the art of character, plot, and structure. The best teacher is absorbing media and she spends her time reading about different worlds from teen angst to the universe of Stephen King. Just like any genre, horror tends to have certain hallmarks that are easy to spot. By their very nature, these movies are dependent on trapping characters in certain situations against their consent. Scarily clever movies like The Conjuring find a way around these mechanics, as with the Perron family. Though they are indeed in a haunted house, the Warrens maintain that leaving wouldn't do any good since the malevolent spirit has attached itself to the family. Other horror movies aren't so well-devised. Or if they are well-devised, they sometimes still reinforce the trope of characters refusing to see what is right in front of them. In many haunted house films, characters waste too much time hemming and hawing over the spirit world being real or not, instead of acknowledging the obvious. Some of these horror movie characters are so oblivious that they get what is coming to them in the end. 5 George Lutz Rejects Religious Intervention in 'The Amityville Horror' Image via American International Pictures The adaptation of the allegedly true story of the Lutz family is iconic and for good reason. The Amityville Horror perpetuates the stereotype of a husband who refuses to leave their obviously haunted house. George Lutz (James Brolin) arguably started this trend in Hollywood, but is not the biggest perpetrator of it. It is hard to pass up a Long Island home for such a steal. Ultimately, George realizes the error in buying an obviously haunted house, but his religious aversion gets in the way at first. While his wife, Kathy (Margot Kidder), is Roman Catholic and immediately brings in a priest to bless the property, George is more suspicious of the whole institution. This allows him to be pulled into the evil basement with the red room and succumb to possession. The family then regain their senses, but not after they stare a gift-pig demon in the mouth. George isn't the most egregious horror movie husbands who refuse to see the obvious, but he was one of the first. 4 Christian's Self-Absorption is the Point of 'Midsommar' Image via A24 Christian (Jack Reynor) and Dani (Florence Pugh) of Midsommar may not be trapped in a haunted house, but it takes far too long for one of them to see the issues with the idyllic Swedish community in Ari Aster's 2019 masterpiece. Christian abuses self-absorption in the film, even though it was initially difficult to sense the ill intent of the cult. His obliviousness first pertains to his own girlfriend as he takes her for granted during the worst period of her life. His crimes only start then, as he ignores every conceivable red flag because he becomes obsessed with stealing his friend Josh's thesis. Christian's obliviousness is baked into the story, but that doesn't make him any less frustrating. His obliviousness and disregard for Dani directly impacts his ending in the narrative. While fans want George to escape with his family despite his failings, Christian is the prime target for the audience's ire. He ignores the strange happenings for his own benefit, so it is a relief when he ends up in the bear suit in the ending of Midsommar. 3 Josh Is Dangerously Emotionally Absent in 'Insidious' Image via Blumhouse Unlike Christian, Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) has more of a reason to emotionally distance himself from his partner, but he also has far more chances to catch on in the first Insidious film. Christian was lulled into a false sense of security because of the beautiful landscape, but it was more than obvious that Josh and his family were stuck in a recurring nightmare. The low-budget Insidious movie follows the Lambert family after they move into a new house. When their son, Dalton, inexplicably falls into a coma, Josh's wife, Renai (Rose Byrne), comes to suspect that the house is haunted. Though that doesn't end up being the case, there is still something severely wrong with the situation. Things move on their own and ghost children prance through the halls. Josh deals with Dalton's sickness badly, which results in him inadvertently gaslighting his wife at every turn. He doesn't believe something is wrong until she throws what appears to be a blood-stained sheet in his face. Josh eventually redeems himself, but he still gets his just deserts at the end of the first movie. 2 John Was Comically Stupid in 'Orphan' Image via ©Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection There are bad horror movie husbands, and then there is John Coleman. Played to perfection by Peter Sarsgaard, there is not an audience member who wasn't screaming at him to get with the program in the 2009 cult classic, Orphan. The horror movie is remembered as having one of the best plot twists in history, but viewers had to endure John's insistence that his adoptive daughter Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) was completely normal. Though Esther went to great lengths to pit John and his wife, Kate (Vera Farmiga), against each other, there comes a time when a husband just has to believe his wife when she says their daughter is evil. Josh of Insidious fame eventually comes around, but there are no redeeming qualities about John. He argues that Esther is normal, and his wife is an alcoholic almost until his last breath. He only understands something is really wrong when Esther tries to seduce him, and he earns a knife in the chest for his trouble. Don't rest in peace, John. This is a deserved ending. 1 Micah Didn't Die Fast Enough in 'Paranormal Activity' Image via Paramount Pictures The movie to make found footage horror films a fad, Paranormal Activity made a triumph out of a minimal budget. The setup is simple as Katie and Micah come to suspect there is a demonic presence in their home. While Katie is naturally concerned about this, Micah's attitude makes him one of the most hated characters of horror movie legend. Micah sets up a camera to film the presence but continues to antagonize it for the entire story. When he isn't disbelieving his girlfriend, he is outright trying to inflame the creature, even though experts have warned him not to contact the presence directly. Micah is not just oblivious, but an unsupportive partner who hammers home all the frustrations of this particular trope. His death couldn't come fast enough. It was just a shame that Katie had to go down with him.